We’ve probably all heard of the strawman fallacy. And many of us have also heard of the perceived opposite of strawmanning, namely steelmanning. In this article I want to introduce another informal fallacy. To my knowledge, I am the first to articulate the concept and coin the term supermanning. Check out the analysis and avoid the fallacy! Let’s […]
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No True Christian. No True Muslim
In my recent video review of God’s Not Dead with Capturing Christianity, I criticized the film’s uncharitable stereotyped portrayal of Muslim families. Predictably, conservative Christians pushed back. One fellow on YouTube replied, @Randal Rauser Usually, that “reason” is that one person makes a superficial outside observation and reads too much into it, then makes up a straw […]
Coming to Terms with the Problem of Evil
If you want a simple and effective way to identify a Christian apologist worth listening to, ask them to share their thoughts on the problem of evil. If they keep their discussion of the problem in the abstract and if they suggest that it is a problem easily solved, you should keep looking. But if […]
On Strawmen and Steelmen
A few weeks ago, I read the following tweet from an atheist: Dear child, I love you unconditionally. Sincerely, God P.S. If you don’t return my love, I will set you on fire forever. Love you! It would be one thing if folks all recognized this as a trolling caricature. Just a bit of naughty […]
On Keeping a Closed Mind: Lessons from The Friendly Atheist
A couple days ago The Friendly Atheist posted an article titled “Christian Textbook Urges Readers To ‘Keep a Closed Mind’.” The short article features a screenshot from a page out of a textbook for Christian young people. (Before this I’d never heard of the book, What’s on Your Mind? Discover the Power of Biblical Thinking, or […]
